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New From the Professional Library Departments: Resources Education Week offers a readable, comprehensive look at standards and high-stakes testing.
A Better Balance: Standards, Tests, and The Tools
to Succeed--The Quality Counts 2001 Report From Education Week In planning their comprehensive study of standards and testing, the editors of Education Week had a truly radical idea. Rather than talking only with business leaders, politicians, and academic ex-perts to find out what's happening in American classrooms, they decided to ask teachers. The 2001 edition of Education Week's annual Quality Counts report includes a national survey of 1,000 public school teachers. The poll showed that teachers support standards, but not high-stakes tests. Besides giving the poll data, the writers present teachers' vivid portrayals of what's really happening in classrooms. The extensive reporting of teachers' views is just one example of the common sense and thoroughness that characterize this work. Here's another: The report provides snapshots of each state's standards and testing situation, and each snapshot includes the latest information on student achievement in that state from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. NAEP is the only program that gives the same set of tests to representative samples of students across the country. When the state says most of your students are failing, you can use the NAEP scores to make a reasonable judgment as to whether the students are really doing poorly or whether your state has set the bar much higher than other states have. The report also looks carefully at claims about the supposed public support for flunking students and withholding diplomas based on tests. Public opinion, it turns out, changes according to how questions are phrased. For example, the Business Roundtable found that more than 60 percent of the public say students should have to pass state tests to graduate from high school, even if they have passing grades in their classes. But Public Agenda found that nearly 80 percent believe schools should use teacher evaluations along with test scores to make such decisions. This Quality Counts report paints a broad picture of standards and testing across the country, and also fills in the details state-by-state. It's an indispensable reference work for anyone who wants to act to protect children from unfair state tests. To read the full report online or to order a printed copy, go to www.edweek.com/sreports/qc01/. --Alain Jehlen
Excerpt: New from the NEA Professional Library
Using student achievement measures in teacher evaluation is an extremely controversial practice, but one that is growing in popularity. James Stronge and Pamela Tucker have written a scholarly and well-researched examination of four approaches to the use of student achievement in teacher evaluation and have identified the strengths and weaknesses of each. Stronge and Tucker conclude that teacher evaluation should be informed by student progress, but they point out the pitfalls in relying solely on student test scores. To order, call 1-800/299-4200, or check the Web at www.nea.org/books.
Excerpt: Books by NEA MembersWhy Can't We Talk? The Good Teacher's Almanac Vietnam Insights The Ultimate Playground & Recess Game Book Ask Mr. Teacher Hidden Skeletons and Other Funny Stories How to Write Powerful Letters of Recommendation TV TipsAncestors in the Americas This two-part series examines the history of early Asian immigrants to the Americas. Combining dramatic re-enactments and composite voices with typical historical resources such as primary sources and scholar interviews, the program explores the experience of Asian immigrants and Americans from the 1700s to the 1900s. On March 23, "Coolies, Sailors, Settlers: Voyages to the New World" looks at why and how people from Asia came to North and South America and connects developments in Europe and the Americas to Asian immigration. Airing March 30, "Chinese in the Frontier West: An American Story" chronicles the arrival and experience of Chinese immigrants in California, from the 1850s Gold Rush through the Exclusion Acts of 1882 and anti-Chinese riots in the latter part of the century. A companion Web site offering teaching guides, related historical documents, a timeline, additional resources and a bibliography, along with resources for researching family history, can be found at www.cetel.org. After the Storm Adapted from Ernest Hemingway's short story set in the 1930s Caribbean, After the Storm follows the fate of two men whose greed gets the better of them as they set out to recover treasures from a sunken luxury yacht. Voyage of the Unicorn Based on the book Voyage of the Basset, this two-part presentation follows an antiquities professor who ventures into a mythical world created by his illustrator wife before her death. The professor sorely misses his wife and the spark she brought to their lives, and his young daughters struggle in different ways with the loss of their mother. When the family stumbles into the land of Faerie Isles, their journey becomes one of self-discovery and healing. 70s: Bell Bottoms To Boogie Shoes A lighthearted look at the decade that spawned platform shoes, pet rocks, and lava lamps, this two-hour special explores the social history of the 1970s. Interviews with the creators of television shows such as All in the Family and Saturday Night Live, along with musicians and comedians, provide insight into a time marked both by psychedelic pop culture and social and political turbulence. Destination Future: High-Tech Transportation Using virtual-reality tools to show what the future may hold for methods of transportation, futurists, scientists, sociologists, and designers consider how we might get around two years, two decades, and two centuries from now. Boys Will Be Boys Boys Will Be Boys presents the story of a 15-year-old girl who is victimized by sexual harassment at her school. Though her family supports her, it is only when a lawsuit is filed that school officials become convinced there is a serious problem. The program is presented especially for educators, with one-year taping rights and online support materials for middle school educators, including a study guide and a bulletin board discussion available at www.KIDSNET.org or www.foxfamilychannel.com/cableclass. The Neanderthal's World Well suited to their cold and rough environment, Neanderthals produced more than 60 types of stone tools but were unable to adapt once the ice sheets melted and they were cut off from their hunting grounds. Living in small groups that were increasingly isolated from each other, the Neanderthals slowly died out. This program uses dramatizations with prosthetics and cutting-edge animation to chronicle the rise of the Neanderthals and show what likely happened some 35,000 years ago when their world intersected with that of the Cro-Magnon. CNN Newsroom: Eye of the Storm This special CNN Newsroom presentation explores the weather, beginning with a basic explanation of common types and causes of weather and continuing with a look at the science of snowstorms and blizzards and the destructive power of hurricanes and tornadoes. Online simulations from Riverdeep Interactive Learning and discussions with meteorologists and other experts will be featured in an interactive Web cast on CNNfyi.com. American Writers: A Journey Through History C-SPAN looks at the lives and works of American authors who have considered, chronicled, or influenced the course of U.S. history. Broadcasting live from a historic site each week, the series traces American history through 8 eras and 45 writers. From William Bradford and Sojourner Truth to Black Elk and Upton Sinclair to Ernie Pyle and Betty Friedan, the program explores the eras of the writers, along with their backgrounds and impacts on society and history. Programming schedules, detailed information on each author, and lesson plans can be found at www.americanwriters.org or www.c-span.org/classroom. Each program repeats on Fridays at 8:00 p.m. and is commercial-free and copyright cleared for educators. Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report Bill Moyers investigates the assumption of most Americans that corporations shoulder the burden of proving chemicals are safe and that the government protects them from harmful ones. In the past 50 years, more than 75,000 chemicals have been released into the environment. Based on industry documents, this report looks at how the failure to fully inform Americans of the dangers created by some of these chemicals has placed public health and safety at risk. Superhuman Body: The Future of Medicine Four areas of current medicine and healing are explored in this series, including new approaches to treating trauma, improvements in transplant surgery, the harnessing of the human body's natural ability to heal itself, and the use of bacteria and viruses to jump-start the immune system and fight disease. The programs use microscopic, time-lapse, and slow-motion photography along with medical imaging, animation, and documentary footage to provide a glimpse into the future of medicine. The Sign of Four An Englishwoman calls upon Sherlock Holmes to investigate an anonymous gift of pearls that she has received along with a letter promising to right wrongs done to her, in this original presentation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic mystery. Fight for Your Rights: Take A Stand Against Discrimination This 2001 yearlong campaign is focused on empowering young people to fight discrimination in their communities and within themselves. The campaign addresses discrimination due to religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and physical or mental ability. Throughout the year, programming events and specials along with news segments and public service announcements will be aired. A free Youth Action Guide, which identifies key ways for people to fight discrimination, will be available through the MTV Web site, and online components and local grassroots organizing will expand the campaign. For more information, visit www.FightforYourRights.MTV.com. KIDSNET, a national resource for children's media in Washington, D. C., provides these listings. For more information, go to www.kidsnet.org. Web WinnersAmerican Sounds Looking Upward Free to Teachers Yahoo for Kids Pandas Free to Teachers Best School Site? For Young Readers Introduction to Ballet Search Engines.com Being Eloquent Our President U.
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